Latest / The Animal Advocate / Rethinking Wildlife Protection: From Scarcity to Abundance

Transcript

Rethinking Wildlife Protection: From Scarcity to Abundance · The Animal Advocate

• 0:00
  Welcome back to the Animal Advocate. So we
• 0:04
  spent time on companion animals and animal sheltering
• 0:08
  and wild animals in captivity and in roadside
• 0:11
  zoos. Now I want to talk about protecting
• 0:15
  wildlife where they live. Today we're going
• 0:19
  to talk about a fundamental flaw in how we think about and
• 0:23
  legislate around wildlife protection.
• 0:26
  I often talk to my law students about how strong a law the
• 0:30
  Endangered Species act is. Hopefully, it'll stay that
• 0:34
  way. But it's an incredibly powerful law because it
• 0:38
  prohibits pretty much any kind of harassment of endangered
• 0:42
  species. But the thing is, by the time we're
• 0:45
  rescuing species with the Endangered Species act, we've already
• 0:49
  failed them. They're almost gone. And bringing them back from the
• 0:53
  brink and is incredibly difficult and sometimes
• 0:56
  impossible. Today, we're looking at what
• 0:59
  happens when we design systems around crisis instead
• 1:03
  of abundance, and why flipping that script would
• 1:07
  change everything.
• 1:12
  Welcome to the Animal Advocate, where we arm animal
• 1:16
  lovers with the information and inspiration you need to become
• 1:19
  effective advocates. I'm your host, Penny Ellison,
• 1:23
  and I've taught animal law and advocacy, University of Pennsylvania,
• 1:27
  since 2006. If you've ever thought
• 1:31
  someone should do something about that, I'm here to guide you
• 1:34
  on your journey to being that someone. You can
• 1:38
  find us on the web@animaladvocacyacademy.com
• 1:42
  and that's where you'll find show notes and resources, and you can
• 1:46
  send us your comments on episodes and ideas for topics you'd like to
• 1:50
  hear on future shows. So onto today's
• 1:54
  topic.
• 2:01
  More than 60 years ago, one of my heroes, Rachel Carson,
• 2:05
  warned us about a silent spring, a world
• 2:08
  where pesticides had killed so many birds that spring
• 2:12
  would arrive without birdsong. Her book, Silent
• 2:16
  Spring, sparked the environmental movement and led to
• 2:19
  a ban on ddt. But what Rachel
• 2:23
  Carson couldn't have imagined is that we've learned so little
• 2:27
  from her warning that we're now facing not just a
• 2:30
  silent spring, but potentially silent seasons all
• 2:34
  year long. Different causes with the same result.
• 2:38
  Fewer and fewer birds filling our world with life.
• 2:42
  Carson showed us what happens when we ignore the early warning
• 2:46
  signs until it's almost too late. And today,
• 2:50
  we're making the same mistake with a much broader crisis.
• 2:55
  Since 1970, wildlife populations in North
• 2:58
  America have declined by an average of 39%.
• 3:03
  Worldwide, that number increases to
• 3:05
  73%. We've lost more than 3
• 3:09
  billion birds in the United States. If you're a
• 3:13
  certain age, I bet you've noticed that, because that's almost
• 3:16
  a 30% decline in just five decades.
• 3:20
  That didn't happen overnight. It wasn't a single
• 3:23
  catastrophe. Just like most things in life, it was the
• 3:27
  accumulated result of thousands of small decisions and
• 3:31
  trade offs that individually seemed reasonable.
• 3:34
  Until one day, the silence set in.
• 3:38
  That's what ecologists call the empty forest syndrome.
• 3:42
  The trees are there, the canopy looks fine, but the
• 3:46
  forest is quiet because the wildlife is gone. How
• 3:50
  did we get here? And what can we do about it? Here's my
• 3:53
  take. Our wildlife laws are designed
• 3:57
  exactly backwards. They wait for a crisis to happen
• 4:01
  before they act. Even then, it usually requires
• 4:05
  citizens to marshal evidence of near extinction and
• 4:08
  plead for the government to act by listing a species
• 4:12
  as threatened or endangered. The Endangered Species act
• 4:16
  only kicks in once species are circling the drain.
• 4:20
  Think about it this way. Imagine if we only treated heart disease after
• 4:23
  someone was having a massive heart attack. No prevention,
• 4:27
  no early warning systems, no lifestyle changes.
• 4:31
  Just waiting until someone's in the emergency room. That's
• 4:35
  our current approach to wildlife. We've created a system
• 4:38
  that only responds to crisis. Then we wonder why
• 4:42
  recovery is so expensive and uncertain.
• 4:45
  Meanwhile, we're watching this slow motion shift in what we
• 4:49
  consider normal. Each generation accepts
• 4:53
  a quieter, less abundant world as their baseline.
• 4:57
  Kids today think seeing a monarch butterfly is special
• 5:00
  because it genuinely is now. But I remember when
• 5:04
  migrating monarchs would fill the playground at
• 5:07
  recess. This is what systems designed around
• 5:11
  scarcity, acceptance of less.
• 5:15
  Now you might be thinking, but surely we have other laws protecting
• 5:19
  wildlife before they're endangered. And we do, sort
• 5:23
  of. But it's like having a medicine cabinet full of band aids when
• 5:26
  what we really need is health insurance.
• 5:30
  So what do we have? The Migratory Bird Treaty
• 5:34
  act protects birds from intentional killing, but
• 5:38
  it doesn't provide any habitat protection. So you
• 5:41
  can't directly harm birds, but it allows extensive
• 5:45
  destruction of their nesting and feeding areas.
• 5:48
  The Marine Mammal Protection act stops deliberate harm
• 5:52
  to whales and dolphins, but doesn't address the
• 5:55
  ecosystem damage that's making their survival so hard.
• 6:00
  So those are at the federal level. State wildlife laws
• 6:03
  vary wildly. Most of them focus on game
• 6:07
  species, animals that hunters target, not
• 6:11
  overall biodiversity. So ironically, if you're a
• 6:14
  hunted species, you're more likely to get some level of
• 6:18
  protection. We also do have something called
• 6:22
  State Wildlife Action Plans. There are
• 6:25
  comprehensive blueprints for conserving fish and wildlife
• 6:29
  before they become endangered. And that's what we're talking about.
• 6:33
  They've identified over 12,000 species that need help.
• 6:37
  So what's the problem? Well, states get less than a million
• 6:41
  dollars a year from the federal government to implement those
• 6:45
  plans, and experts say they need more like a
• 6:48
  $1.3 billion to fully implement those plans
• 6:52
  after they develop them. Without that kind of funding,
• 6:55
  some states get creative and use a tool called conservation
• 6:59
  easements to preserve habitat. So what's a
• 7:03
  conservation easement? Well, a property owner gives up
• 7:07
  development rights in exchange for money or
• 7:10
  tax breaks while they still own the land.
• 7:14
  States like New York manage almost a million acres this way.
• 7:19
  But details matter. Some protected lands
• 7:22
  prohibit development, but they still allow things like
• 7:26
  logging or mining or intensive farming.
• 7:30
  So you can have a protected grassland that's
• 7:33
  basically just a field of wheat sprayed with chemicals.
• 7:37
  So it still doesn't provide any habitat. It kills all
• 7:41
  the insects that the birds need to survive. But
• 7:44
  the bigger issue isn't what happens on protected land,
• 7:48
  it's what happens between protected lands.
• 7:52
  One of the real problems with our approach to conservation
• 7:56
  is fragmentation. We're creating
• 8:00
  isolated islands of habitat in a
• 8:03
  sea of development. Animals can't
• 8:07
  move between these fragments to find food,
• 8:11
  mates, or suitable breeding areas. That's why,
• 8:15
  despite decades of conservation programs and
• 8:18
  easements, one third of bird species in North
• 8:22
  America need urgent conservation action.
• 8:26
  So what would a system that actually works
• 8:29
  look like? What's missing from our legal framework
• 8:33
  is any law that maintains wildlife abundance
• 8:37
  before it becomes scarcity. The tools to do
• 8:41
  that exist. We can detect marine mammals in
• 8:45
  real time with AI thermal cameras
• 8:49
  and underwater microphones. But most ships don't use
• 8:52
  them because there's no legal requirement that they do.
• 8:56
  We haven't prioritized marine mammal safety.
• 9:00
  So whales continue to die, not because we can't
• 9:04
  help, but because we choose not to.
• 9:08
  It happens on land and in the air, too.
• 9:11
  Communications towers kill millions of birds every year.
• 9:15
  But research shows that simply changing the lighting on these towers
• 9:19
  could reduce bird deaths by up to 71%.
• 9:24
  Most towers still use that deadly lighting because
• 9:27
  better lighting isn't required. When wildlife
• 9:31
  populations thin out, we lose
• 9:34
  ecosystem services, pollination,
• 9:38
  seed disposal, pest control.
• 9:42
  These things aren't nice to haves. They're the infrastructure that
• 9:46
  makes human life possible. And there's something else we lose too,
• 9:50
  maybe more practical economic opportunity.
• 9:54
  Wildlife related recreation contributes over
• 9:58
  $156 billion annually to the U.S. economy.
• 10:02
  When populations decline, so do the communities that
• 10:06
  depend on that activity. It's a case study, really,
• 10:10
  in how systems designed around the minimum create
• 10:13
  less of everything. Less biodiversity,
• 10:17
  less economic opportunity, less wonder for the
• 10:21
  next generation.
• 10:24
  So what should we do? As you can probably
• 10:28
  guess, I have some ideas. First, we
• 10:32
  need laws that address wildlife abundance.
• 10:35
  Laws that establish population baselines and
• 10:39
  abundance targets for key wildlife groups. With
• 10:42
  regular monitoring and funding for proactive conservation.
• 10:47
  But let's be realistic. In the
• 10:51
  current climate, advocates like us need to think locally.
• 10:55
  Zoning laws are local laws and that means
• 10:59
  incremental change is possible. We could
• 11:03
  mandate consideration of wildlife abundance in land use
• 11:06
  decisions. And what I mean by that is currently
• 11:11
  developers have to check if endangered species live on their
• 11:14
  land. What if they also had to show that
• 11:18
  new projects wouldn't diminish wildlife populations?
• 11:23
  That would be great. On the federal level,
• 11:27
  we need to protect the existing laws we have, the
• 11:30
  Endangered Species act and the Migratory Bird Treaty act
• 11:34
  from interpretations that gut their meaning. Make your
• 11:37
  voice heard when new rules are proposed. But
• 11:41
  remember, most US Land is privately owned,
• 11:45
  which means we need private landowners to be part of the solution.
• 11:50
  And just like dogs, people respond better to carrots
• 11:54
  than sticks. So we could expand tax
• 11:57
  incentives for maintaining wildlife habitat on private
• 12:00
  lands. Make it financially advantageous
• 12:04
  to keep land wildlife friendly. Enhance
• 12:08
  conservation easement programs, payment for
• 12:11
  ecosystem services. That means paying landowners
• 12:15
  for the benefits that their well managed land provides.
• 12:20
  Now here are some success stories that prove all this can work.
• 12:24
  The North American Wildlife Management Plan has
• 12:28
  maintained abundant duck and geese populations through
• 12:31
  habitat conservation and science based management.
• 12:35
  They're doing well because they decided to be proactive.
• 12:40
  Another organization, the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program,
• 12:44
  helps private landowners restore habitat voluntarily,
• 12:49
  proving that when you make it easy and beneficial for people
• 12:52
  to help wildlife, they often will. And
• 12:56
  those state wildlife action plans we talked about?
• 12:59
  They identify already at risk species
• 13:03
  before they become endangered. They're underfunded,
• 13:07
  but they show what's possible. When we think ahead, the
• 13:11
  path forward requires a fundamental shift from
• 13:14
  crisis response to proactive conservation.
• 13:18
  Instead of requiring proof that activities harm
• 13:21
  endangered species, we should require proof that
• 13:25
  activities won't diminish wildlife abundance.
• 13:28
  It's like a shift in the burden of proof. Instead of making
• 13:32
  conservationists prove harm will occur,
• 13:36
  developers would have to show that their activities won't hurt
• 13:39
  wildlife. This isn't rocket science. We know
• 13:43
  what works. We just need the political will to do it
• 13:47
  consistently and at scale.
• 13:58
  This week's listener question comes from John, and he writes,
• 14:02
  I love the idea of protecting wildlife abundance, but this all
• 14:06
  sounds like something I can't really do anything about. What
• 14:10
  can regular people actually do to help wildlife
• 14:13
  thrive? Well, John, none of us will fix the problem
• 14:17
  ourselves, but if thousands of individuals do what they
• 14:20
  can, we can change a lot. There's so much you can do
• 14:24
  in your own community, like support local organizations
• 14:28
  that work on habitat conservation. There are a lot of land
• 14:32
  trusts and conservation groups already doing this work.
• 14:36
  Also, you can contact your state and local
• 14:39
  representatives about wildlife friendly policies.
• 14:43
  City and county governments make decisions all the time about
• 14:46
  land use, pesticide policies, and
• 14:50
  habitat protection that directly affect local
• 14:53
  wildlife. And here's my make your
• 14:57
  own property more wildlife friendly.
• 15:01
  No one needs a perfect lawn, and Americans have
• 15:04
  to stop prizing barren lawns where every blade of
• 15:08
  grass is perfectly uniform. They're barren
• 15:11
  and support no life. This should go without
• 15:15
  saying, but stop using weed killers and pesticides.
• 15:19
  Planting native plants that nourish local wildlife is
• 15:23
  easy. I've done it, and every time I look at them,
• 15:27
  I just beam with happiness. You can do it no matter how
• 15:31
  small your yard is. And think less mowing
• 15:44
  now for this week's Be the Change segment, here's
• 15:48
  something practical that everyone should know about, but somehow they
• 15:52
  don't seem to find out where your local
• 15:55
  wildlife rehabilitation facilities are.
• 15:59
  Maybe it's just the groups I hang out in, but you'd be surprised how
• 16:02
  often someone posts online frantically looking for a place to
• 16:06
  take orphaned or injured wildlife. Know
• 16:10
  where these places are and what their policies are before
• 16:14
  you need them, and support them. Also, because they're often
• 16:18
  operating on shoestring budgets and there's often only
• 16:21
  one at most operating in your area. So
• 16:25
  if they aren't there to do the work, there'll be no one to do it.
• 16:29
  After you get this information, share what you find on social
• 16:33
  media and tag us. It's
• 16:36
  NimalAdvocacyAcademy. Let's start building an
• 16:39
  army of advocates that know what to do when they find wildlife
• 16:43
  in trouble. And we'll save them, one
• 16:47
  by one. To wrap it up for today, the challenge
• 16:51
  isn't just preventing extinction, it's enabling
• 16:54
  wildlife to flourish across America for
• 16:57
  generations to come. And yes,
• 17:01
  given the current political climate, we probably need to start
• 17:05
  at the state and local level for legal protection and
• 17:08
  open space commitments, and also support
• 17:12
  nonprofits that are creating partnerships to create
• 17:15
  wildlife corridors and set aside the most critical spaces
• 17:19
  for habitat. Future generations deserve more
• 17:23
  than empty forests and silent springs. They
• 17:27
  deserve skies filled with birds, waters teeming with life,
• 17:31
  and ecosystems that hum with abundance. And getting
• 17:35
  there isn't just about preventing the worst outcomes.
• 17:39
  It's about refusing to settle for anything less than the
• 17:42
  best ones.
• 17:47
  That's it for today. The Animal Advocate Podcast is brought
• 17:51
  to you by the Animal Advocacy Academy. You can find
• 17:54
  episodes and show
• 17:55
  notes@animaladvocacyacademy.com
• 17:59
  along with a link to our Facebook and LinkedIn pages where we
• 18:03
  discuss our podcasts and we'd love to discuss your thoughts and experiences.
• 18:08
  If you're interested in learning more about protecting animals, subscribe to the
• 18:12
  show so you get every episode when it comes out.
• 18:15
  If you have any questions on this or any other topic related to animal
• 18:19
  law, email them to
• 18:21
  podcastnimaladvocacyacademy.com
• 18:25
  and we'll make sure to get them answered. We'll either email you back
• 18:29
  or feature them in a future episode, or both.
• 18:32
  And remember, compassion is great, but
• 18:35
  compassionate action is infinitely better. Until
• 18:39
  next week, Live with Compassion.